Cboe Exchange, a United States securities exchange, filed an amended application to regulators to list options on Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs), according to two Aug. 28 filings for Bitcoin and Ether options, respectively.
According to the documents, the exchange seeks to list options linked to ETH and BTC ETFs issued by asset managers, including Fidelity, 21Shares, Invesco, VanEck, Grayscale, Bitwise, BlackRock’s iShares, and Valkyrie.
The proposed rule change would categorize the spot cryptocurrency ETFs alongside commodities-based ETFs such as the Goldman Sachs Physical Gold ETF and the iShare Silver Trust as “[s]ecurities deemed appropriate for options trading,” according to exhibits included in the BTC and ETH options filings.
Related: Expect Bitcoin ETF options to launch before 2025
The news is the latest in a flurry of activity around options on spot cryptocurrencies in the US. On Aug. 27, Nasdaq, another US securities exchange, announced its intention to list Bitcoin options tied to the CME CF Bitcoin Real-Time Index (BRTI), a benchmark for BTC’s spot price.
In August, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) American and Nasdaq International Securities Exchange (ISE) withdrew four applications to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) related to the possible listing of BTC options. On Aug. 8, Cboe withdrew an earlier application to list options on BTC ETFs.
Options on crypto derivatives ETFs are already trading. Source: Bloomberg Intelligence
“There’s definitely some movement on Bitcoin ETF options,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart said in an Aug. 8 post on X. “The SEC likely gave some sort of feedback.”
Bloomberg predicts spot BTC options go live in the fourth quarter.
Options are contracts that grant the right to buy or sell — “call” or “put” in trader parlance — an underlying asset at a certain price. They are commonly used as hedging instruments and are popular with speculators, too.
Cryptocurrency derivatives on regulated exchanges are gaining popularity in the US. As of the market close on Aug. 9, open options interest on BTC futures ETFs exceeded $3.25 billion, according to data from The Options Clearing Corporation, an industry self-regulatory organization (SRO).
Exchanges also aim to list Solana (SOL) ETFs. Asset manager VanEck’s plans for a Solana exchange-traded fund (ETF) are “still in play” despite the removal of Cboe Global Markets’ regulatory filing proposing to list the fund on its exchange, according to an X post by Matthew Sigel, VanEck’s head of digital assets research.
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